The departure of Andrew Bogut during the offseason left the Golden State Warriors without a rim protector, something that has weakened their defense in the season’s first 10 games.
While many are hoping the Warriors will eventually be able to figure out a solution with their current personnel, if the struggles in protecting the paint continue, Bob Myers and Co. may be forced to make a move.
SiriusXM NBA host and founder of Hoopscritic.com Brian Geltzeiler joined The Audible on Monday morning and argued that the Warriors should look to solve their issues by making a trade, saying that the Sacramento King’s Willie Cauley-Stein and the Philadelphia 76ers’ Nerlens Noel should be at the top of the list.
“Willie Cauley-Stein and Nerlens Noel would be the two players I’d be looking at,” Geltzeiler said. “Cauley-Stein is in a situation in Sacramento where Dave Jorger had Kosta Koufos when he was in Memphis, loved him, and is going to give him the minutes with Cousins, and behind Cousins, they have a lot of depth in the middle. Cauley-Stein has kind’ve been the forgotten man there and he’s still on a very competitive rookie deal. Especially when the Warriors have a youngling like McCaw that they can lead a package with. I think Cauley-Stein will be a good player for them.”
“The other guy is Nerlens Noel. The issue with Noel is he’s due for a big extension at the end of the season. He would not get an early extension from the Sixers. He is injured right now, but I do kind of think you can get him for those reasons at cents on the dollar. The Warriors would have a right to match with Noel, or they could say goodbye to him at the end of the season and just move on if they didn’t have to give up that much for him. I think he’s a player that would also fit very well.”
Geltzeiler believes the lack of a rim protector will prove to be an Achilles heel for Golden State and says the death lineup was exposed in last year’s playoffs.
“We saw it in last year’s playoffs. All the switching that the Warriors do, they love to switch defensively. It kind’ve has become an Achilles heel for the death lineup…Iguadala is weakening from an athletic standpoint, not being as good defensively, the one thing that cures those ills is somebody on the backline that can swat shots and change shots and protect that rim and the Warriors just don’t have that right now.”